


Love and Loyalty

by Rebelhalen



Category: Revolution (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2018-11-21 09:54:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11355054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rebelhalen/pseuds/Rebelhalen
Summary: “I’ve seen something like this before and this is undoubtedly worse cuz it’s the patriots… If that number gets read, Jason won’t be Jason any more. He’ll be nothing more than a weapon, he won’t be able to control himself. He won’t have any morals, any feelings. He won’t care about you anymore. You’ll only be an obstacle in his way and he’ll bulldoze right through you.”“He’s a ticking time bomb Charlie and you don’t need to be around him when he goes off.”“What are you saying Monroe?” Charlie asks, looking at the ground, kicking some rocks around.There’s a long pause before Monroe answers. “I’m saying you need to cut him loose.”Charlie looks back up at Monroe then, anger in her eyes. “I’m not going to leave him,” she says. Monroe didn’t like her answer, Charlie could see from the anger budding in his eyes.“He’s dangerous, he’ll hurt you.”Charlie laughed. “Oh that’s rich coming from you,” she said.Monroe’s eyes furrowed but he ignored the comment and the sting of pain and regret that came with it. “He’s going to hurt you, and if you expect me to just stand around and let him then you’ve got another thing coming Charlotte.”





	1. Chapter 1

During the episode The Stand in Season One Instead of sending Jason away after he warned her about Neville sending an air strike on the rebel camp, Charlie lets him come with her. Danny and Nora still die so Charlie still hardens but she lets Jason get close to her and their love strengthens. But when the bombs drop Jason leaves with his father to search for his mother, while Charlie is not happy about it she understands and Jason promises to return. In the meantime she still goes in search of Monroe and finds him fighting as Jimmy King in New Vegas. The bounty hunter Luke still captures them and they still escape. Monroe does still save Charlie from the men in the bar and they still do take the trip back to Texas. However, Jason is still sent to the patriot reprogramming center. But once he finds out that his mom is still alive and her and his father start scheming again he leaves, disgusted with both of them. He finds Charlie and the gang in Texas right before Monroe and Charlie were about to leave to get mercenaries in New Vegas. Connor never existed. While Jason was gone Monroe and Charlie develop a camaraderie that while neither of them acknowledge, both of them realize how alike they are. And while Miles and Rachel argue about morals in the war against the patriots Monroe and Charlie both have the same outlook on it. They both know that they have to do whatever necessary to beat them. Monroe starts to see Charlie as his “right-hand man” more than Miles and vice versa. They become partners and whenever the group splits up Monroe and Charlie are always together. They become used to fighting at each other’s side and having each other’s back to the point that they don’t even have to think about it anymore. And this is when Jason comes back into the picture.

“Charlie is NOT going with him, you must be joking.”  
Charlie rolls her eyes and lets out a breath as she overhears her mother.  
“Well do you really trust Monroe to go by himself? Charlie has to go with him.”  
Charlie tries to block Miles and Rachel out and starts loading up the wagon. She glances over when Monroe starts loading the wagon too. He feels her eyes and looks up immediately to catch her gaze before she has the chance to look away.  
“How long do you think they’re gonna argue?” he asks her. Charlie’s mouth curls up at one side as she looks back at Rachel and Miles. Rachel was now pacing and shaking her head with her arms crossed while Miles was trying to placate and convince her simultaneously. Charlie chuckles, still watching her uncle and her mother, “Let’s just say there’s no hurry to get this wagon loaded.”  
“Or we can speed up and leave without their blessing,” Monroe says and Charlie swivels her head back over to him.  
“Their blessing?” She asks, laughing a little, “It’s not like we’re going to get hitched.”  
Monroe smiles to himself at that before putting the last of the cargo into the wagon. “Try telling them that,” he says, nodding to where Rachel was now looking appeased while Miles was heading over to them shaking his head and mumbling to himself.  
“Look, Charlie maybe it’ll be better if I go with Bass and you stay here with your Mom,” Miles says.  
Charlie groans, “But Miles! You know I get cabin fever if I’m left with her alone for too long. Besides isn’t she worried about Bass’s bad influence over you?”  
Monroe laughs at that, and notices how she called him Bass instead of Monroe. He also notices how his stomach did a back flip hearing it before cramming that thought to the back of his brain. Miles glares at Charlie and Charlie raises an impertinent eyebrow. They stare at each other for a long moment, neither of them planning on backing down. Monroe can’t help grinning to himself, enjoying the stare down.  
“Now, now, there’s no need to fight over me, ya’ll both can come along, there’s enough of me to share,” Monroe says, smirking when Charlie rolls her eyes, finally giving up on the staring competition.  
Miles shakes his head and grumbles, “We can’t leave Rachel here alone.”  
“Why not? Oh yeah, because she’s the brains and we’re the brawn, and if one of us isn’t there to protect her, her brains might get splattered,” Monroe grouses, becoming impatient.  
Charlie shakes her head, also becoming impatient and looks off towards the wagon that she wishes she was on right now. Her heart jumps in her chest at what she sees past it. Or rather who she sees. “Jason,” she murmurs.  
Monroe hears her and stops talking dead sentence to look at her. “What?” he asks Charlie, even though he heard her. “Charlie,” he says when she doesn’t answer.  
But Charlie doesn’t pay Monroe or Miles any attention and begins to walk towards Jason uncertainly at first until she sees how banged up he is. She stops walking for a second to stare at his black eye and busted lip and bloody hands. Jason doesn’t stop though and continues towards her. “Charlie!” he exclaims, wondering why she stopped. When she looks up into his eyes, he has to remember how to walk. He can never get used to how beautiful she is. He smiles at her, trying to reassure her. When he smiles Charlie starts running toward him and Jason’s smile widens. He leans down and opens his arms for her and she doesn’t disappoint as she barrels into him. He laughs and wraps his arms around her, lifting her up and spinning her around briefly. He sets her down and cradles her face, lifting it up to look at him. “Jason,” she whispers, “What happened---” But he kisses her before she can say anymore. She whimpers and kisses him back. They make out for a minute before he pulls away to whisper in her ear, “I missed you Charlie.”  
“I missed you too Jason,” Charlie says, pulling back. “What happened? Did you find your Mom? Why are you hurt?” She asks, but he shakes his head and grips her hips, pulling her closer.  
“I’ll tell you all about it later,” he says, and lifts her chin up to kiss her again. She lets him for a moment and tries to push her questions to the back of her mind, but her impatience wins out and she pulls away. He sighs and releases her, “Okay, now,” he says, “Patience never was your best virtue,” he smirks at her, and she can’t help but smile back. He leans in, “But let’s find someplace private because afterwards there will be no more talking. Patience is not my best virtue either,” he whispers in her ear and smirks as she shivers.  
“Nipples!” They both look up as Miles and Monroe approach.  
“You think he’ll ever stop calling me that?” Jason murmurs and Charlie laughs.  
“Maybe never,” she answers.  
“I never thought I’d say this but it’s good to see you. Maybe with you here Charlie will soften up a little and listen to her elders,” Miles says, sending Charlie a look. Jason laughs.  
“Now you and I both know that’ll never happen,” he responds earning a smile from Charlie. Charlie slips her hand into his and he wounds his fingers between hers.  
Monroe feels a little annoyed at the adoring look his warrior partner gives Jason. “Who beat the shit out of you?” Monroe asks Jason gruffly.  
Jason looks at Monroe. “Monroe,” he says, his eyebrows furrowing, “What are you doing here? No offense but the last time I saw you, you were trying to kill us.”  
Monroe smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “And the last time I saw you, you were all snuggled up with Daddio. How is Tom, by the way? Or was he the one who gave you that beating?” he asks, noticing with satisfaction Jason’s grimace.  
“Monroe,” Charlie warns, and his eyes shoot to hers. He raises an eyebrow at the challenge in her eyes but bites his tongue when he sees the pleading there too.  
“Well he’s snuggled up with the Patriots now, with my mother,” Jason says. Monroe and Charlie look back at Jason.  
“What?” Miles asks.  
“Your mother’s alive?” Charlie asks.  
Jason nods before closing his eyes briefly and rubs the back of his neck. By now Rachel has joined the group. “Jason,” she says, “What happened?”  
Jason looks at Charlie, “Well, I guess we’re not going to get to go someplace private,” he mutters to Charlie before beginning his story.

“He’s not safe,” Monroe says to Miles, later that night. Their trip to New Vegas postponed for the moment.  
“Oh come on Bass, he’s trustworthy.”  
“That’s debatable,” Monroe argues, “But even if he doesn’t sell us out, if someone reads that number, we’re all fucked. Charlie most of all.”  
Miles rubs his hand over his mouth, thinking. “Well, the way I see it,” he says after a moment, “the safest place for him to be is with us, since none of us is going to read that number. We just gotta make sure no one else gets to him and reads it.”  
Monroe shakes his head, “And then what? We let him kill all of us while we try to talk the terminator out of him? He’s a liability Miles. And how do you think Charlie is going to react when that number gets read?... There’s only two ways for this to end. Either he dies or Charlie dies, and you know it.”  
“Yeah, well how do you think Charlie’s going to react when she hears that you wanna kill her boyfriend, hmm? You think she’ll just say, oh you’re right Bass, here, use my crossbow?” Miles responds.  
“I’m not saying we have to kill him, just leave his ass here.” Monroe replies.  
“You really think Charlie would leave him? You think he wouldn’t follow her if she did? Listen, Rachel’s right, you tell Charlie that she can’t be with Jason she’ll just want to be with him more. No, we just need to keep an eye on him.”  
Monroe shakes his head, beginning to walk off. “Fine, but it’s just going to hurt her even more later.”  
“Why do you care so much about Charlie getting hurt, anyways?” Miles asks, a little exasperated.  
Monroe turns around, “Because I don’t want to see her end up like me. Because like it or not Miles, when it comes to grief she’s more like me than you or Rachel. She’s not going to become a basket case like Rachel, and she’s not going to drown herself in alcohol like you. That fire in her is going to explode that composed façade that she’s perfected and I don’t know what it’ll take to pull her out of the deep end.”  
Miles didn’t know what to say to that, so he just told Monroe to head to New Vegas with Charlie the morning after tomorrow so to give her and Jason a chance to catch up. Monroe didn’t want to give them time to “catch up” but he bit his tongue. But he did appreciate Miles saying that he would deal with Rachel. So Monroe left him to mull over his words. If Miles was going to be too pussy to do anything about Jason, then he would have to do something about it himself… What that was, he wasn’t sure of yet. But he was sure about the sick feeling twisting his gut and the dread encroaching into his soul. Something very bad was going to come from this, from Jason, he knew it. How he was going to make Charlie see that, he had no idea, but he knew he had to, even if he made her hate him in the process.

Charlie’s Point of View  
After Charlie learned about what the patriots did to Jason, what Tom Neville, his father did to Jason, sex was the last thing on her mind. She was mad. Scratch that, she was pissed.  
“I can’t believe that asshole would do that to his own son!” she exclaims, on the verge of shouting. She and Jason were sitting in a meadow in the woods, not far from the shack that her family were using. Well Jason was sitting. Charlie was pacing.  
“That selfish, self-righteous, masochistic, psychopathic prick bastard,” Charlie growled, as she flipped her knife over and over again in her hands, deftly twirling it around her fingers with each step she took.  
Jason had given up on trying to calm Charlie down, and had just settled to listening to her rant patiently. He knew she was right about his father, but a part of him still wanted to defend him. His father didn’t really know what was going to happen to him when he gave him up after all, but that didn’t excuse the fact that he gave him up in the first place. Unfortunately, however he didn’t know if he would ever stop feeling the need to defend his father, but he damn sure wasn’t going to say that to Charlie. No point in adding fuel to an already blazing inferno. Though a big part of him did feel like it would’ve been better if he had never said anything about the patriot camp. And not just for Charlie, but for her family’s opinion of him too. He’s noticed the way Miles looked at him warily, hates the pity he sees in Rachel’s eyes. But the worst is the reckoning he sees in Monroe’s cold and calculated eyes. He couldn’t quite pinpoint why Monroe bothered him more than Miles or Rachel but whenever Monroe was around his hair stood on end, and he felt uneasy.  
But he knew that if Charlie ever found out or if, God forbid, someone was able to read that number… No it was definitely better to be honest with Charlie. He didn’t want to lose her ever again because of his omissions. He watched and listened to her for a little while longer before standing up. She had been ranting for an hour now, it was time to at least attempt to calm her down.  
He walked up behind her and grabbed her shoulders. She tensed but he pulled her back into his chest and she relaxed a little. He wasn’t sure what to say though so he just wrapped his arms around her stomach and nuzzled his face into her hair. A part of him wanted to just say that everything would be okay, but he didn’t want to lie to her. He wanted to tell her that he would never hurt her, but he knew that that was a potential lie too. He’s seen how that number changed a person after it was read. They weren’t themselves anymore. They weren’t human anymore. They weren’t a soldier, they were just a weapon. They didn’t even get to decide whether to pull their own trigger.  
So he said the only thing he knew would never be a lie. “I love you Charlie,” he whispered.  
“Oh Jason,” Charlie sighed, before throwing her knife on the ground and turning around in his arms. She kissed him, throwing every pent up emotion she had into the kiss, her anger, her desperation, her fear, her passion, her longing.  
Jason kissed her back with equal fervor and soon they were undressing each other. They both felt too desperate for any foreplay and they both came not long after Jason entered her. They slept in the meadow that night, Jason’s arms wrapped around her.

 

Charlie was grateful that she didn’t have to sneak into the shack and was just able to get the meds for Jason out of the wagon. She had never had to do the walk of shame and she didn’t plan on doing it now. It was just before dawn, the sun hadn’t risen yet. She had a dream she was falling from a tower and had woken up right before she hit the ground. She had heard once that if you ever hit the ground in a dream that you die in real life, she laughed at the ridiculousness of it, but she still felt a little uneasy. She noticed that the wagon was still fully loaded and wondered whether Monroe was still going to New Vegas. If he was then she would have to go with him. Because she sure as hell wasn’t going to stay here with her Mom and Jason, talk about awkward. But she wasn’t going to leave Jason here for Miles and Rachel to meddle with either so he would have to come with her. She was surprised at the weariness that arose from that thought. It probably had something to do with Monroe and the way he had antagonized Jason before. It was obvious that Monroe didn’t like Jason, but she had no idea why except that it might have something to do with Tom. Tom did desert Monroe after all. Well, like it or not, he was going to have to get over it and at least be civil to Jason or she was going to have to have a little chat with him. “Good morning Charlotte.”  
Startled, Charlie dropped the bag of meds and swung around. “Monroe, don’t sneak up on me like that.”  
“Just checking to see if you were aware of your surroundings. It seems like lover boy’s knocked you off your game.”  
Charlie rolled her eyes and turned away from him to put the meds that had fallen out back into the bag.  
“Where is lover boy anyways? He usually follows you around like a lost puppy.”  
“He’s still in the meadow, sleeping,” Charlie said quickly, then turned around to face him “What’s your problem with Jason?” She asked strongly.  
But he ignores her question.  
“So that’s where you went last night,” he said, his gaze scanning her body before settling on her neck. The hickies that Jason left on her last night burned under his eyes and she swept her hair from her back to cover them. His eyes returned to hers and she could see that he was grinding his teeth from the way his jaw worked.  
She sighed and dropped the bag back into the wagon. “What is it Monroe?”  
“What is what Charlotte?”  
“I know you have something you want to say so just spit it out, I want to get back to Jason before he wakes up,” Charlie said, “And you still didn’t answer my question,” she added.  
He looked away from her at that and his hands clenched and unclenched as he thought. Charlie waited patiently for a minute before it ran out. Her patience was pretty fickle. She let out a breath and stepped closer to Monroe, wanting him to look at her, but he still didn’t.  
“Bass,” she said and his eyes swung to hers so quick, it was as if he never looked away. She felt trapped by the intensity of his gaze.  
“Charlie,” he started, “I know that Jason wasn’t too forthcoming about that number in his eye to us. I don’t know what he told you, but I do know that he had to have understated what that number does if it’s read and-”  
Charlie interrupted him, “He told me all about it,” she said coolly and turned away from him to get the meds. Jason hadn’t really given her any details about the number, she didn’t really give him a chance to last night with her ranting. But she was so not in the mood for this conversation and she honestly didn’t think she was ready to hear it.  
Monroe grabbed her arm and twisted her back around to look at him. She stubbornly didn’t meet his eyes. “Charlie,” Monroe said, trying to get her to look at him. When she didn’t he grabbed her other arm and shook her. “Dammit Charlie, this is serious!”  
She looked up at him warily. His eyes softened and his grip loosened but he didn’t let go. “I’ve seen something like this before and this is undoubtedly worse cuz it’s the patriots… If that number gets read, Jason won’t be Jason any more. He’ll be nothing more than a weapon, he won’t be able to control himself. He won’t have any morals, any feelings. He won’t care about you anymore. You’ll only be an obstacle in his way and he’ll bulldoze right through you.”  
Charlie shakes her head and pushes his hands off of her. Monroe steps in front of her as she tries to walk past him. “He’s a ticking time bomb Charlie and you don’t need to be around him when he goes off.”  
“What are you saying Monroe?” Charlie asks, looking at the ground as she kicks some rocks around.  
There’s a long pause before Monroe answers. “I’m saying you need to cut him loose.”  
Charlie looks back up at Monroe then, anger in her eyes. “I’m not going to leave him,” she says. Monroe didn’t like her answer, Charlie could see from the anger budding in his eyes.  
“He’s dangerous, he’ll hurt you.”  
Charlie laughed. “Oh that’s rich coming from you,” she said.  
Monroe’s eyes furrowed but he ignored the comment and the sting of pain and regret that came with it. “He’s going to hurt you, and if you expect me to just stand around and let him then you’ve got another thing coming Charlotte.”  
Charlie’s eyebrows raise at that. “I don’t expect you to do anything but leave us alone,” she retorted, grabbing her bag and walking past him. Monroe growled and shoved her against the wagon, pinning her with his body. “Stop walking away from me Charlie, I’m trying to protect you!”  
“I don’t need you to protect me!” Charlie exclaimed.  
“Yes you do if you’re not going to protect yourself. You need to tell him to leave or so help me God I’ll-”  
“You’ll what?” Charlie asked shoving at him. “Hmm, you’ll what Monroe? Kill him?”  
Monroe’s jaw locked and he didn’t answer her. Instead he said, “I know you think he cares about you,” Monroe says, but doesn’t finish his sentence.  
“He loves me Monroe, and I don’t think it, I know it.”  
Monroe looks at her for a long moment. “Do you love him?”  
“What kind of question is that? Of course I do!” Monroe stares at her eyes before his eyes drop to her lips, a smile slowly filling his face. This annoys Charlie.  
“What the hell are you smiling about General?” But even using that title doesn’t make the smile drop, he just shakes his head and steps back.  
“Alright, Charlotte, run back to lover boy,” he says, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He turns around and starts to walk away before adding over his shoulder, “Oh and by the way, I’m leaving for New Vegas tomorrow morning, so be ready if you’re coming.”  
Charlie watched him leave, utterly confused. Monroe had more mood swings than a bipolar pregnant woman in her third trimester, on crack. He drove her insane. He wound her up like no one else ever had before. Charlie took a deep breath, but that didn’t help. There was no way that she could go back to Jason like this, there were only two options, get drunk or hunt. She decided to go with the latter since it wasn’t even eight o’clock in the morning yet and she wasn’t an alcoholic like Miles was.

Monroe left Charlie feeling a little better, even though he didn’t accomplish his goal. But he felt like it was still a step in the right direction. He knew that Jason didn’t tell Charlie about what would really happen once that number was read because he was too much of a pussy. And he was afraid of losing her. Because she didn’t love him. Jason knew it and now Monroe knew it too. Monroe couldn’t help but smile at that. Even if Charlie thought she loved Jason, Monroe knew that if it came a time when she’d have to choose between Jason and herself she wouldn’t sacrifice herself. She would kill Jason to protect herself and that reassured Monroe. It might destroy her to do it, but she would do it if she had to. And Monroe would be there to put her back together.  
Monroe wasn’t cruel enough to hope that Charlie would have to kill Jason though. He knew that was not the best case scenario, but it definitely wasn’t the worst case scenario, and the worst case scenario Monroe now knew was not a possibility.  
So Monroe had a few options on how to proceed. He could either A: Kill Jason. B: Convince Charlie to break up with him. C: Show Charlie that she wasn’t in love with Jason.  
Unfortunately, Monroe knew that A wasn’t really viable if he ever wanted Charlie to speak to him again, if she didn’t kill him. However, he also knew that C would be a very risky mission and had a strong possibility of backfiring. Because if she didn’t realize herself that she wasn’t in love with Jason then she might just think that Monroe had just tricked her into believing it and then she definitely would think she was in love with him, if that made any sense. And B went along with C.  
Monroe shook his head, he no longer felt any better. He knew that the best way to protect Charlie would be to just kill Jason or somehow make him leave Charlie. But selfishly he didn’t want to do that because he didn’t want Charlie to hate him. So Monroe decided that he would just leave it alone for now and see how this worked out.


	2. Chapter 2

Charlie shot three rabbits and walked back to the shack. She noticed Jason fooling around with the meds in the bag and immediately felt bad for forgetting about him. She walked over to him and he raised his head. He saw the rabbits in her hand and looked up at her. “So that’s what you were doing this morning when I woke up,” he said. “I was a little worried about you.”  
Charlie frowned. “I’m sorry, I meant to be back before you woke up but I got sidetracked. But you shouldn’t worry about me, I can take care of myself.”  
“I know you can Charlie, that’s not what I was worried about,” Jason says quietly before looking away from her, rummaging through the med bag.  
“What were you worried about then?” Charlie asks him, sitting the rabbits down beside the wagon.  
He shakes his head before looking up at her sideways for a moment. He looks back down, “I was worried that you regretted last night,” he says, grabbing a bandage and pulling one sleeve of his shirt over his head so half his torso was bare. He tries to put a bandage on a cut on his shoulder blade and Charlie sits down next to him and takes the bandage from him.  
She furrows her eyes at the cut and digs in the med bag for some disinfectant ointment to rub on it. “Why would you think that?” She asks, as she finds some, “It’s not like it was our first time.” She rubs the ointment gently over his shoulder, her face inches away from his neck. Jason shivers and she looks up to find him looking at her lips.  
“I don’t know,” he says, before looking into her eyes. Charlie waits for him to continue and she squints her eyes a little when he doesn’t. There are questions in his eyes and she can’t understand them all.  
She looks down at his wound while she puts the bandage on it and says, “Well I didn’t regret it Jason.”  
She looks up, back into his eyes, but there’s still questions there. She’s not sure what to say to erase them and is afraid to ask for a reason she can’t explain. So she kisses him and he kisses her back, hesitantly at first but then fully. The kiss is soft and sweet and doesn’t last long but it seems to help Jason’s mood.  
She is finishing patching him up with Monroe walks up. “Change of plans,” he says, “We’re leaving for New Vegas in an hour, get ready, Charlie.”  
Jason’s eyes furrow. “You’re going to New Vegas?” he asks Charlie.  
“Yeah, Monroe and I were about to leave last night when you showed up. We need more people to help us fight the patriots and we were going to New Vegas to get some mercenaries.”  
Jason nods and jumps up. “Alright, well I’ll go with you,” he says.  
Charlie grins at Jason, the earlier dread falling away now that they were actually about to leave. “Sounds like a plan to me,” she says, and starts packing her overnight bag.  
“Not so fast,” Monroe says and Charlie freezes and looks over at Monroe.  
“What do you mean not so fast? I thought you said we’re leaving soon?” she says.  
Monroe motions to Charlie and himself. “We’re leaving, but Jason isn’t coming with us.”  
Charlie throws down her bag. “Jason is staying with me. So either we’re both going, or neither of us are going,” she says firmly.  
Monroe grins a little at Charlie and Charlie glares at him, ready to punch him. Miles starts over to them, seeing the look in Charlie’s eyes and Bass’s insane smile on his face that he gets when he’s enjoying riling her up.  
He steps in the middle of them. “Bass is right Charlie. This morning I was doing some scouting and I noticed the Patriot camp were moving teenagers into their base. It looks like they’re going to be doing the same thing to them that they did to Jason, and I need him with me for intel.”  
Charlie shakes her head. “That doesn’t make any sense Miles. What are you and Jason going to do, watch them and twiddle your thumbs? There’s no way that you can free them by yourselves.”  
Miles nods. “I know that Charlie, but I’m not completely positive what they’re going to do to those kids. I don’t know if their willing recruits or prisoners, or if they’re going to brainwash them and put that number in their eyelids. Jason is the only one who can be sure what they’re doing with them.”  
“Yeah, well, like I said, what are you planning on doing once you figure that out?”  
“Well, you’re right, me and Jason can’t do anything by ourselves, that’s why you and Bass need to go get those mercenaries now, and we’ll have a plan by the time you get back. New Vegas is only a few days away, if you hurry you could be back in a week.”  
“But what if that’s not enough time?” Charlie asks.  
Jason steps into the circle. “It’s enough time,” he says, “It usually takes about a month to get them fully ready for the number.”  
Charlie stares at Jason, more questions popping into her head. “You were there for a month?” she says, a dangerous edge in her voice.  
Jason looks at Charlie then, but before he could say anything Monroe interrupts.  
“We don’t have time for this, Charlie we need to leave now,” he says impatient.  
Charlie bites her tongue, knowing he was right, that this wasn’t the time for questions. She steps closer to Jason, “You sure you’re okay with this?” she asks.  
He nods, “Miles is right we need to find out what they’re doing with those kids,” he says.  
Charlie frowns, dropping her eyes “I know, but…”  
Jason steps closer to her, raising her chin to meet his eyes again. “But what Charlie?” he says softly.  
“You just got back,” she murmurs. And Jason shuts his eyes, leaning his forehead on hers.  
“I know,” he says, he doesn’t add that it needs to be done, or that Miles is right and this is the best way to do it. They both know that it doesn’t need to be said.  
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Charlie finally says and he smiles, leaning back to look at her.  
“That’s my line,” he says, and she can’t help but laugh. He kisses her then, forcefully, forcing his tongue through her lips and forcing her body to meet every line of his. Monroe clears his throat loudly and they pull away from each other. He wraps his arms around her and whispers in her ear, “I love you Charlie,” and she nods.  
“I’ll be back soon Jason,” she says and kisses him chastely one more time.  
“Alright,” Miles says, “Jason, pack your bag, we need to keep an eye on them.” He nods and looks at Charlie one last time before running off to go pack.  
Miles walks up to Charlie and pulls her into a bear hug. “Be careful kiddo, and keep Bass in line,” he says. He looks at Bass, “Keep her safe,” he says to Monroe.  
“Always,” he says, locking eyes with Charlie. Charlie looks at Monroe for a minute, remembering their conversation this morning before Miles begins to walk away.  
“Miles,” she stops him, with a hand on his arm. “Take care of Jason. Don’t let them get their hands on him,” she says, and he knows what she’s asking, don’t let them read that number.  
He nods, “I will Charlie, he’ll be here safe and sound when you get back.”  
And with that Charlie and Monroe finish loading the wagon and start off towards New Vegas. 

“So how are we going to get these mercenaries?” Charlie asks Bass, after riding in silence for a couple hours. She was about ready to kill something from boredom.  
“From a war clan leader I used to know named Duncan,” he says.  
“And he’s just going to let us borrow some of his men?” Charlie asks, doubtful.  
“Hopefully,” Monroe says, not bothering to tell her that Duncan’s a woman. He didn’t feel like talking to Charlie about Duncan. Why not, he wasn’t sure. He guessed that it was because it didn’t really matter now that he and Duncan used to be lovers. And he was afraid that Charlie might read too much into his past.  
They sat in comfortable silence for a while longer until a question started irking Bass. “So why didn’t you ever mention Jason to me when he was gone?” he asks.  
Charlie looks at him, confused. “I don’t know,” she answered honestly, “I guess I didn’t think it was any of your business,” she says, though if she was being honest herself, she barely thought about Jason at all when she was with Monroe.  
“Why do you ask that?” she says.  
Monroe shrugs, “I just thought with how in love you two are you wouldn’t be able to help yourself, you would want to talk about him to a friend,” he says, though he knows he’s lying about a couple things to see what she’ll say.  
Charlie frowns. “What, you mean that I’m supposed to gossip like some love-sick school girl because I’m in a relationship?” she asks.  
Monroe laughs at that for a minute before sobering, realizing with satisfaction that she actually wants a response. “You’re not supposed to do anything Charlie, except be yourself,” he says carefully. “All I’m saying is that love makes everybody crazy, it’s supposed to,” he says, finishing. He watches her from the corner of his eye as she divulges this. She looks befuddled for a moment before a slow smile forms on her face.  
He turns his whole head to look at her then and can’t stop a smile from forming on his own face. “What?” he asks her, but she doesn’t turn her head.  
He stops the wagon, so he could give her his full attention. He was curious; he had to know what she was thinking.  
“Charlie,” he eggs and she finally looks at him that smile still on her face, her eyes sparkling mischievously. Bass mesmerized, couldn’t look away if he had to.  
“Is that why you went crazy?” she asks.  
Bass’s smile drops and he has to look away then. He straightens up, tense. Charlie’s smile slips at the change in his demeanor.  
“Yes, actually,” he says, urging the horses along again, “That was one of the reasons.” He doesn’t elaborate though.  
“Bass,” Charlie says, knowing that was a sure way for her to get his attention. Like always, it does, he looks at her.  
“Tell me about it?” she asks gently.  
He stares at her for a minute. “Her name was Shelley,” he says, his eyes leaving hers as he reminisces, “It was before the Republic.. She was pregnant. She was in labor and I went out for just a second to tell Miles to get some water and towels and when I went back in she was dead.. So was the baby.”  
There’s silence for a minute after that as Charlie divulges this information. She stares at him while she thinks about the implications of what this means. About how that changes everything she thought about him before when he was President. She scoots closer to him, “I’m sorry Bass,” she says. She doesn’t know what else to say, but that seems to be enough for him.  
Bass nods, placing his other hand on hers. “Thanks Charlie,” he says, “I’m sorry too. For your dad and for Danny,” he apologizes again even though he’s done it countless times before, but it didn’t feel right to him. For her to be feeling bad for him after everything that he’s done to her. He didn’t want her to ever feel bad because of him again.  
“I know you are,” Charlie says, Bass looks over at her and Charlie holds his gaze for a moment before dropping it, memories of her father and brother accosting her. She scoots away from Monroe as melancholy covers her and she jumps from the seat beside Monroe and into the back of the wagon. She needs something to do and decides to sharpen her arrows.  
Monroe clenches his eyes shut, feeling so many different emotions that it’s hard for him to focus enough to make sense of them. He had started this conversation to try and help Charlie at least begin to squint at the fact that she might not be in love with Jason and ended up divulging his own tragic love story, his deepest secret. The only other person who knew about that was Miles, and he was there!   
Charlie never ceased to surprise him. And her continuing escalating effect on him never ceased to amaze him. He shook his head and tried to focus on the road and on listening to Charlie. He knows that he needs to give her space now or she might distance herself from him. Give her space now and she’ll come back to him later, push her now and she’ll leave him later.  
So he keeps his mouth shut and they continue on in silence for a few more hours, even though this silence isn’t as comfortable as the last one.  
The sun begins to set and Monroe hears Charlie’s stomach growl. He looks over at her. “Let’s make camp and find us something to eat,” he says and she nods, ready to get off the wagon and stretch her legs. They find an opening in the woods near a stream and Monroe  
tells Charlie to go hunt and he’ll take care of the horses. “Yell if you need me,” he says and she nods.  
He unhitches the horses and puts a halter on them and ties them to a tree, giving them room to graze. He gets some feed out of the wagon and puts it in two buckets and sits them in front of them. They neigh gratefully and start chomping. He goes to the stream and gets some water for them before going back and getting water for himself and Charlie. He washes his hands and face in the water and takes a bandana out of his pocket and dips it in the water and puts it around his neck. It was near the end of August but it was still hot and felt more like June. He builds a fire to cook their dinner and waits for Charlie. He begins to get worried after a while and is about to go into the woods and find her when she walks out of the clearing. Her cross bow slung across her back and two rabbits in her hands. She smiles at Monroe. He smiles back, “I was getting worried bout ya,” he says.  
She rolls her eyes, but says, “There were hardly any animals around.” He nods and walks over to her. She looks at him questioningly when he holds out his hand.  
“I’ll dress and cook them, why don’t you go clean yourself up,” he says. She looks like she’s gonna argue for a second but she hands them over before walking off to the stream. “Wait,” he says as an afterthought, “there’s some soap in the wagon.” He lays down the rabbits and gets into the wagon and digs around before finding it. She smiles at him warmly when he gives it to her, and his hand brushes hers. She walks down a good ways so Monroe can’t see her and undresses. She could use a bath. She gets in the water but the deepest it’ll go is waist deep so she ducks her head under to get her hair wet. She suds up her hands with the soap and scrubs her hair. She runs the soap along her body, getting the grime from the past few days off her. And then she gets her underwear and washes them with the soap. She wishes she remembered to bring an extra pair of clothes so she could wash her whole outfit but oh well. She wrings out her panties and that’s when she hears something behind her.  
She pauses just for a second, before continuing to wring out her underwear, listening carefully. She didn’t know what was behind her, if it was an animal or a lone man or a few men, all she knew was that she was buck ass naked and that she didn’t want to clue them in that she heard them, if they were trying to sneak up on her. She heard a stick snap not just a yard or two away from her and she lets herself freeze now, waiting. A big sweaty hand grabs her arm and she grabs the wrist, twisting it, almost breaking it, until it lets go. She swings around and stands to look at her attacker. Or attackers, apparently. Her heart rate picks up as four men stand in front of her. All of them looked older than her, but younger than Bass. They weren’t all necessarily ugly, but they looked and smelled like they hadn’t had a bath in a week.  
She doesn’t give them any more time to stare at her. She attacks the one with the hurt wrist first, grabbing it again and twisting it, this time breaking it for sure and the man lets out a scream. He tries to grab her with his other hand but she dodges it, and spins around, feeling another one of them at her back. But she doesn’t turn around in time and the man hits her in the face. She almost goes down but she straightens up before she can hit the ground. Apparently they weren’t going to fight her one by one but gang up on her and she feels a sting of fear course through her.  
She expects the man to come at her again and is a little surprised when he doesn’t and says, “Now, now, we don’t really wanna hurt ya. Definitely don’t wanna ugly that pretty face, we just want to have a little fun is all. We can make it good for you too, if you don’t fight us.”  
“Doubt it,” she says and punches the man twice in the face, twisting her knuckles at the connection of the last punch, breaking his nose. He stumbles back and Charlie knees him in the crotch to make him go down when the third guy grabs her by her hair. She lets out a growl and wraps her hands around the hand in her hair. Her hands immediately go to his without thinking. She hated when someone pulled her hair, she thought it was such a pussy move. She struggles against him for a moment before forcing herself to focus. She stomps on his foot with her boot and elbows him in the gut. He cusses.  
He throws her to the ground and she immediately starts to scramble up, it was imperative that she did not get pinned to the ground. But the man kicks her in the stomach and she immediately feels all the breath leave her, and she gasps for air. And before she can catch her breath the man is trying to pin her and Charlie barely scrambles away from him before he can straddle her waist. She starts to feel full blown panic at that, knowing that if she was just a second slower it could’ve been over right there. Oh shit. She didn’t want to have to call out for Bass since she was naked but knew that she probably should’ve already done so.  
“Monroe!!” she yells as loud as she can as she backs away from the man stalking towards her trying to come up with a plan. She wished she had a weapon but stupidly left everything at camp. She mentally kicks herself for that. As the man reaches for her she dodges around him only to be grabbed by the second man with a death grip around her arm. She yanks away from him and screams when she hears her shoulder pop, dislocated. “Bass!” She screams, not caring that she’s crying now from the pain.  
Her vision is blurry, white around the edges and she grits her teeth. She could not pass out now. The men are leering at her now, laughing, and she sees one of them pull out a knife. But instead of feeling panic at that all she feels is angry that they were playing with her. As the man begins to thrust his knife at her, she dodges it, waiting for an opening. She sees it and slaps his hand hard making him lose grip of the knife. She grabs it before it hits the ground and doesn’t even feel when it cuts her hand open from grabbing the blade.  
The man’s eyes widen and start to back up but she quickly flips the knife around and stabs him in the gut before pulling it out and shoving it through his neck. She stares at the last man who looks afraid now and a hysterical laugh bubbles up out of her throat. He looks like he’s about to flee but doesn’t get the chance when a sword goes through his back and his stomach.  
Bass pulls the sword out before the man drops and Charlie falls to her knees, no longer caring or even realizing that she was naked and Bass was standing in front of her. She lets herself pass out, her shoulder and hand on fire.  
When she wakes up her shoulder and hand feel numb and she has trouble keeping her eyes open. When she’s finally able to keep them open longer than a second she looks around and sees that she’s back at camp and Monroe is beside her wringing out a rag in a bucket of water. She gasps and Bass looks up at her quickly. She starts to sit up and sees Bass’s eyes drop to her chest briefly and she looks down, seeing that she’s still naked under the blanket. She pulls up the blanket to cover her chest and looks at Bass who’s looking at her face. She tries to move her arm and let’s out a gasp. She looks at Bass fearfully and he says, “It’s still dislocated, I couldn’t relocate it with you passed out,” he says, apology in his voice.  
“Well relocate it then,” she says, exasperated and impatient. He quickly moves around her and her hand shakes as she clenches the blanket around her as he grabs her wrist and elbow.  
“Ready?” he asks, and she nods, “On three,” he says, “One,” and he twists and she lets out a cry as he puts it back in place. She gasps and catches her breath, eyeing him.  
“How did I know you were going to do that?” she asks, but he doesn’t smile. He starts to pull at her hand clutching the blanket and Charlie starts to object before she sees that its bleeding through the bandage he must’ve put on earlier. She uses her other arm to grab the blanket, biting her lip from the pain. Bass freezes, staring at her face.  
His face twists, “Sorry,” he says quietly.  
“It’s alright,” Charlie mutters back and gives him her hand. She couldn’t stop it from shaking though and Bass covers it with his hands to steady it, her blood getting all over his hands.  
He uses the rag to wipe the blood off, but Charlie watches as the blood doesn’t stop, and is surprised when she sees Bass’s hands shaking. “Bass,” she mumbles and he lets out a frustrated growl, not looking at her.  
“I’m going to have to sew it up,” he says and scrambles up, running to the wagon and slinging shit around. Charlie watches him, feeling a little afraid at his rattled state. He grabs a first aid kit and a flask and runs back over to her. He quickly pulls out a little cup and pours what looks to be whiskey out of the flask into it. He shifts for a needle in the kit and stirs it in the alcohol for a moment. He grabs some thread and puts it through the needle eye. He sticks the needle and thread pointy end out between his teeth as he grabs her hand, pouring the whiskey over it before putting pressure on it with his rag. Charlie screams from the pain, her eyes tearing up and clenching shut from the burning. Bass doesn’t do anything, staying still while she got her bearings, her scream making his heart feel like it was scratching to get out of his chest. Charlie lets out a shaky breath when the sharp pain dulls. She opens her eyes to see Bass’s hands shaking. She looks up at his face and calls his name.  
He clenches his eyes shut before looking at her, his eyes a little crazed. She tries to give him an encouraging look and it must’ve worked because his eyes focus and he takes the needle and thread from his teeth and he lets out a breath that he’s been holding. He takes in a deep breath and lets it out. His hands stop shaking and he starts to stitch her up. Charlie stays quiet as he works, still a little tense from his edginess. When he finishes, he just sits there for a minute, his hands wrapped around hers and Charlie dips her head trying to catch his eye.  
“Bass?” she says and his eyes meet hers, “Are you okay?” she asks and he gawks at her for a moment before he starts laughing. Charlie’s eyes furrow confused. He cuts the last of the thread in her hand and washes it with a wash cloth, not even bothering to clean his own.  
She’s about to ask him what’s so funny but he stops laughing and shakes his head. “You were almost raped,” he says, his tone deathly even, “and you ask me if I’m okay?” he says disbelievingly and Charlie swallows. She doesn’t know what to say until she remembers before.  
She clears her throat, “Well you weren’t like this last time I was nearly-” but she doesn’t finish as Bass’s eyes snap to hers, almost glaring at her.  
“That was different,” he says quickly, wiping his hands on the rag as he stands up, starting to put everything away.  
Charlie struggles to stand up, clutching the blanket around her. “How?” she asks, but he doesn’t look at her.  
“It just was,” he says and Charlie lets out an exasperated sound at that. She turns around looking for her clothes but doesn’t see them. When she turns back around she inhales as Bass is standing right in front of her, an emotion in his eyes that Charlie’s never seen before. She can’t quite pin point what it is though. She feels uneasy from it and says, “Well nothing happened. I’m fine,” wiggling her arm around that’s shoulder was dislocated, “See good as new,” she grins at him, before punching him with that arm but then grimacing from the sharp pain it caused in her shoulder. Charlie holds her breath waiting for him to possibly blow up, and is relieved when he finally attempts a smile at her.  
She steps away to look for her clothes again, glad that he was finally seemingly calmed down. He puts his hand on her unhurt shoulder and gently turns her around, her clothes in his hands.  
Without having to be asked he turns around and she lets the blanket fall. She is surprised and a little embarrassed when she sees a new pair of panties along with a whole another outfit but feels grateful nonetheless. She can’t fully move her shoulder so she awkwardly pulls on her panties with one hand and tries to do the same with her pants. When she finally gets them over her hips she groans when she can’t button them and she hears Bass chuckle. She looks up quickly to see that he’s turned his head, almost looking at her from his peripheral vision, “Need some help?” he asks.  
“No, face forward,” she bites out and he laughs but turns his head around. She decides to try to button her pants last and grabs her bra. She manages to get it to cover her breasts but can’t fasten it and she lets out a cry of frustration. She looks at Bass’s back, considering.  
“Okay, can you-” and before she can finish asking he turns around, heat in his gaze as he pauses to look at her body. She clears her throat, quickly, her cheeks flaming, and Bass's eyes shoots to hers, shame in his, though Charlie doesn’t catch it. She turns around, holding her bra in place with her good arm. She feels his heat as he steps behind her and when she feels his breath on her shoulder she feels goose bumps pop up on her skin. He gathers her hair and places it over her shoulder before his hands move to her bra, his fingers tracing her back before he reaches it.  
Charlie swallows, fighting the urge to close her eyes and lets out a breath when he clasps her bra, feeling like it took forever. He wraps his arms around her and she jumps back against him in surprise, her heartbeat in her throat. But he just buttons her pants and zips them. He pulls his arms away from her lazily, his fingers grazing her hips as he lets her go. She quickly bends down to grab her shirt and nearly jumps as Bass groans behind her. She doesn’t turn around to see why he groaned and quickly one armed pulls her shirt ungracefully over her head. When she finally manages to get both her arms through, sweat has beaded up on her forehead and she feels like she needed another bath and cringes from the thought.  
She turns around looking for her boots, but looks up as Bass steps towards her. She freezes as he tenderly pulls her hair out from her shirt. Her stomach feels like jello as she sits down, grabbing her boots. She feels almost like yelling at him, tension coursing through her as he kneels in front of her, remembering Jason and feeling bad, ashamed about the way her body is being affected by Monroe, especially after nearly getting raped. She begins to tell him she doesn’t need his help anymore before he produces some socks for her. She tries to grab them out of his hand but he smacks her hands away and puts her socks on for her, making her feel like a child. He starts to grab her boot but she grabs it first. “I got it,” she glares at him and he frowns for a split second before looking up at her. He smirks at her expression before raising his hands in surrender and stands up. Charlie lets out a breath, finally feeling like she can breathe normal now that he wasn't so close.  
When she finally has her boots laced up, her hands feel like they’re going to fall off, the muscles and bones really starting to get sore and cramped from her fighting, especially her hand that’s cut. She stands up and walks to the fire, sitting down on the edge of the log next to Bass. He hands her some cooked rabbit and she eats it fast with her good hand, her stomach growling. “Slow down,” Bass tells her and she looks up at him, “You’re body is still healing,” he says, and she does as he says. When she’s done Bass hands her the flask and she looks at him questioningly.  
“To help you forget,” he says and she shakes her head.  
“I don’t wanna forget,” she says and his eyes furrow. “I was stupid, I didn’t bring any of my weapons with me. If it wasn’t for you they would’ve-”  
But Bass interrupts her, “You forget, you took out three men before I even got there, two without a weapon. The last one was ready to bolt before I shoved my sword through him,” he says. “You did good Charlie, better than good, phenomenal, so don’t beat yourself up about it. And don’t let them make you afraid.”  
Charlie shakes her head, anger in her eyes, “I’m not afraid,” she says, “Next time I’ll castrate all of them before they can even think about touching me,” she spits out.  
Bass nods at her, “You’re angry, good. Use it,” he says and Charlie stares at him.  
“But anger can be dangerous, can’t it?” she asks and Bass looks away from her, knowing that she was talking about what he did when he was president.  
He stares into the fire for a moment before looking back at her. “It wasn’t anger that made me do those terrible things Charlotte,” he says quietly. “It was fear, paranoia.” He takes a long drink from the whiskey and Charlie takes it from him when he’s done.  
“I’ll remember that,” she says before taking a long drink herself.  
That night they sleep side by side next to the fire. Charlie in between the fire and Bass, Bass on his side facing her protectively.


	3. Chapter 3

Charlie dreams about getting raped by those men, one holding her arms, two on either leg while the other shoves himself in her, her feeling like she’s being ripped in half. She wakes up with a sob in her throat, and tears on her cheeks. She sits up quickly and nearly jumps into the dying fire next to her when arms wrap around her. She lets out a breath when she turns and sees that it’s just Monroe. She lets him wrap his arms around her, her heartbeat racing in her throat and her ears ringing. She lets herself melt against him, burying her face in his chest as he whispers soothingly in her hair, “Shhh, it’s okay, you’re okay, it was just a dream. I’m here, I won’t let anything happen to you.” 

 

After a minute she pulls away from him embarrassed at her weakness. She stands up and starts packing and soon after hears Monroe doing the same. “Did you want to eat something first?” he asks and she shakes her head, not looking at him.  
“No, let’s just go,” she says and he nods.

She jumps into the wagon and waits as he finishes packing before getting into the wagon himself. They ride for about nine hours, both of them stopping to walk beside the wagon to get a break from sitting, before they come across a town and Monroe stops the wagon. Charlie looks over at him. They didn’t need any supplies that she knew of. He looks at her.

“Wanna get something to eat here? And maybe some more whiskey for tonight?”

She shrugs and that’s all the confirmation he needs. They park their wagon close to a bar so they can keep an eye on it and tie the horses to a post. They walk into the bar side by side and with one glance at each other know that they want to sit at the end of the bar closest to the door. 

Charlie is grateful that the place seems better than the last bar she went to. There were almost just as many women as there were men and there were only a few people that seemed obviously drunk and Charlie lets herself relax a little bit. She lets Bass order for her and lets him order a whiskey for her too. They eat the same thing, rabbit stew and down their whiskey like it’s a shot. Bass buys a bottle of it and they’re just about to leave when a man walks up to them, eyeing Charlie, immediately putting Bass on edge. He starts to wrap his arm around her possessively but Charlie pulls away from him, annoyed. 

She smiles at the man, “Can we help you?” she asks sweetly and the man eyes Charlie one last time before looking at Bass.

“Yeah, we’re looking for a fighter for a fight tonight. Our fighter bailed and we were wondering if you were interested. Three diamonds for fighting, twelve if you win,” and Bass relaxes. 

“Thanks but I’ll pass,” he says, “we’re just passing through.” 

The man’s gaze moves from Bass to Charlie, “Well actually, we need a girl fighter, and my lady friend over here,” and Charlie and Bass look at the woman he motions to, who’s looking right at them, a challenging expectant look on her face, “Knows a good fighter when she sees one. And you’re her first pick,” he says.

Charlie can’t help but feel a little flattered and lets excitement roll over her. She looks at Bass, asking for permission with her eyes. He stares at her for a minute before he rolls his eyes a little. “What time is the fight?”

“In two hours,” the man says.

“Make it one, and you got yourself a fighter,” Bass says and Charlie smiles, letting him wrap his arm around her, practically bouncing in place. 

“Alright then, I’ll let everyone know it’s gonna be a little early. It’s at the coral down the road a little there. Don’t be late. Oh and who should we say is fighting?” he asks and before Charlie can open her mouth Bass says, “Tracy, her name is Tracy,” and with that the man and his lady friend walk out, the woman nodding at Charlie, a slight smile on her face as she passes them. 

Charlie waits until they’re back in the wagon, heading towards the corral before she says, “Tracy?” 

Bass looks over at her and shrugs, “I’ve always liked the name.” Charlie thinks for a moment before saying, “I like it too,” and Bass grins at her. 

They tie their horses up to a post close to the coral and Charlie hops off. Bass is starting to get nervous but Charlie is just excited. He watches her as she bounces from foot to foot before putting his hands on her shoulders stilling her. He looks her in the eye as he says, “You’re sure you want to do this? If not we can get out of here right now.”

Charlie rolls her eyes, “Yeah, it’ll be fun,” she says. 

“Well how’s the shoulder?” he asks and she lets him grab her wrist as he twists her shoulder this way and that. She only winces a little bit, but Bass doesn’t like it. 

“No your shoulder’s still sore, you don’t want to chance popping it out of place again,” he says. 

Charlie groans and puts her own hands on his shoulders and shakes him a little. “I’m fine Monroe, cheer up, just relax and enjoy that you get to watch me in the ring this time,” she smirks at him. 

“Well let me show you some moves at least,” he says.

“I know all of your moves already,” she says exasperated and he glares at her.

She huffs, “Okay fine,” she says and lets him show her some moves that could actually prove useful because they didn’t require her to use her left arm . 

After a while of that he grabs her cut hand and puts pressure on the palm, watching her face. It hurts but she forces herself not to wince and Monroe seems satisfied with it. She pulls her hand away as people start to crowd around. She starts to head to the middle of the corral but Bass pulls her back, “Wait,” he says in her ear. And she waits until the man who talked to them walks into the middle. He starts with an opening to get the crowd riled up before calling out the girl who was to be fighting Charlie. And Charlie feels surprised when she sees the woman who was with the man in the bar, the woman who said that Charlie was her first pick, step into the ring.

And then he calls out Tracy and it takes a moment for Charlie to remember that that was her. She steps into the ring and nods at the man before he says “Let the fight begin!” and steps out of the coral. The woman nods at her and she nods back. Charlie waits for her to make the first move, but when it was obvious that she wasn’t Charlie steps towards her and tries to punch her. She dodges it and before Charlie can even change her foot position the woman punches her in the face and Charlie goes down. 

Well all be damned, Charlie thinks as she gets up quickly, rubbing her chin briefly. The woman is smiling at her and Charlie smiles back. Charlie thinks she likes this woman. The woman was about Charlie’s size, but probably ten years older, and bigger and taller. She was a brunette, her hair cropped, with hazel eyes. She had tattoos all over her arms and Charlie had to focus to keep from admiring them.   
When it’s obvious that the woman was waiting on Charlie to move again Charlie attacks, trying to hit her in the face again. But this time when she dodges it and goes to hit Charlie, Charlie blocks it and gets a punch in to her face this time. The woman hits a knee but gets up after just a moment. 

Charlie bounces from foot to foot and smiles at her, raising her eyebrows. The woman stands up and smiles back, a big full on teeth smile and Charlie almost laughs. Charlie’s smile drops though when the woman charges her and Charlie bends her knees and bends over a bit to keep from getting tackled as the woman wraps herself around Charlie’s midriff. 

Charlie groans a little bit as she tries to throw the woman off of her but the woman wasn’t letting go. Charlie looks up, trying to think of what to do, and her eyes meet Bass’s and like he’s talking in her head she knows what to do. She tries to knee the woman in the face while pushing at her hands around her back, and while she doesn’t make contact she does get her to let her go. The woman immediately tries to tackle her again and Charlie sprawls, shooting her legs out behind her and puts her hands against her neck, pushing against her as she goes down. When she’s down she immediately tries to pivot around her to mount her back but the woman’s good and rolls away before Charlie can. They both shoot to their feet quickly, neither of them smiling now.

The woman moves like she’s going to punch her and Charlie dodges it only to get kicked in the face, with a front kick and before she can even stagger the woman twists around and kicks her with a flying back kick. Charlie goes down hard and immediately feels the woman trying to get her arms around her neck to choke her and Charlie throws an elbow, not against playing a little dirty to keep from losing. Charlie shakes her head trying to clear the stars from it and wishes she knew how to kick like that. 

The woman smiles at her and as if she was reading her mind, says, “I could teach you.”

“Teach me what?” Charlie says, circling around her. 

“Teach you how to use your legs. You’d never have to throw a punch again,” she says and Charlie considers it for a split second before faking a punch to her face then punching her a good few times in the ribs. As the woman doubles over, Charlie gives her an uppercut that puts her on her back. This time Charlie doesn’t wait for her to get up but quickly straddles her and wails on her face a good five or six punches. Charlie starts to think that she’s won and she looks up to see Bass and the woman somehow bucks her off and uses a birdie to get up. As Charlie scrambles to get up the woman kicks her in the face, sending her down again. 

Charlie rolls away, wincing as she struggles up. She feels like half of her jaw should be laying on the floor. The woman, who is bleeding from her nose and has a busted lip and a black eye laughs at her and Charlie starts to think that she’s crazy. The woman starts throwing kicks at her again but Charlie backs away like her life depends on it. The woman finally quits kicking and throws a punch and Charlie can’t dodge it in time, thrown off from her kicking. The punch hits her ribs but Charlie doesn’t allow herself to wince and tries to throw her own kick but of course the woman dodges it, laughing again. Charlie looks at her like she’s insane and starts to get frustrated. The woman throws three kicks back to back, all of them hitting her and Charlie is thrown back against the coral. “Alright, alright,” she says, moving quickly away from the edge of the ring, “I might just have to take you up on that.” The woman raises an eyebrow and Charlie can’t help but laugh. The one eyebrow move was her move. And she decides she likes her again. Charlie moves to punch her while she’s caught off guard and when she dodges it she throws a kick to her face like her life depends on it and is ecstatic when it connects. 

She moves towards the woman quickly, who’s still stumbling around from the kick, and knees her in the stomach. She punches her in the stomach and in the ribs before sending her a hook against her busted lip and the woman flops down like a rag doll. Charlie tries to bounce from foot to foot to keep her energy up, but her whole body feels like lead and she prays that the woman doesn’t get up. But when she does Charlie feels dread. She waits as the woman gets up on her hands and knees and then in a kneeling position.   
But the woman doesn’t get up any further and Charlie’s eyes furrow, unsure of whether to attack her again or not. Finally the woman puts a hand up and says, “I’m done, she wins.” And Charlie laughs as the woman smiles at her. The man comes back into the ring and pulls her arm up declaring her the winner before putting a pouch of diamonds in her hand. 

Charlie hears the shouts and whistles and cat calls and wants to find Bass but she feels compelled to talk to the woman more. She walks over to the woman who’s still kneeling, resting her butt on her feet and Charlie goes to kneel in front of her but the woman shakes her away and holds out her arm. Charlie pulls her up and the woman smiles at her. 

“I knew I was right about you, you’ve got some fight in you,” the woman says and Charlie smiles at her. 

“I’m.. Tracy,” Charlie says, sticking out her hand wanting to tell her her real name but knows that Bass would chew her out.

“Jessie,” the woman says, shaking it. “Hey do you want to come back to the bar, celebrate a little bit?” Jessie asks her and Charlie looks around and finds Bass, who’s staring at her intently.  
“Um, I don’t know, I’ll have to talk to my friend first,” she says.

“Friend?” Jessie asks, finding Bass, “Is that all he is?”

And Charlie’s eyes shoot back to hers.  
“Yeah, why would you ask me that?”

Jessie shrugs, “He just doesn’t look at you like a friend does is all,” and Charlie’s eyes furrow.

“Well, if you change your mind, come on back to the bar tonight, drinks on me. But if not and you’re still in town tomorrow, come to the bar in the morning and I’ll show you some of those leg moves you were so amazed by,” she says smirking and Charlie laughs. 

“Alright,” Charlie says, “I’d like to take you up on that, but like I said I gotta talk to my-”

“Friend, yeah I got it,” the woman says, a knowing gleam in her eye that Charlie doesn’t understand.  
Charlie starts to leave but the woman grabs her wrist and Charlie stops, turning around.

“Listen, Tracy, if you’re ever looking for a job, you’ve got one here, and I could get you a room too. You’d make good money. Twelve diamonds every fight you win, sometimes more. And you can turn down fights if you want, but you’re good and you could definitely bring in some business around here.”

Charlie’s eyebrows raise as she feels shocked and a little awed. Jessie chuckles and Charlie realizes her mouth is hanging open a little bit and she quickly shuts it. 

“Well actually I have family and a boyfriend I have to get back to, but maybe someday I’ll be back to take you up on that,” Charlie says and the woman’s eyes furrow.  
“I thought you said he wasn’t your boyfriend,” Jessie says, looking over at Bass. 

Charlie also looks at Bass who looks curious and a bit impatient as he watches them. “He’s not, I’m talking about someone else.”

“Oh, that’s a shame,” Jessie says and Charlie’s head again whips around to look at Jessie questioningly.   
Jessie leans into Charlie and turns her around so they’re both looking at Bass. 

“Honey, when a man looks at you like that,” Jessie says, and Charlie swallows, noticing the heat in Bass’s eyes as he stares at Charlie, not even really looking at Jessie, “It’s only a matter a time until he’s calling you his.” 

Charlie looks at her in shock and Jessie laughs, shaking her head. 

“Come now, girl, don’t tell me that you haven’t noticed it even a little bit. What are you blind? But anyways, come by tonight or tomorrow. I hope it’s not the last time I see you Tracy, you have a lot of potential,” and Charlie feels confused by the last bit. 

“Wait, did you let me win?” Charlie asks incredulous and the woman bites her lips and Charlie knows that she did. 

“You gotta be kidding me!” Charlie exclaims, staring at her wide-eyed.

“Why?” and Jessie throws her hands up.

“I wanted to hire you, train you, and that usually works better if you let the person win,” she says and Charlie starts to feel angry about it.  
Jessie laughs and hugs her. “Oh don’t feel bad about it, you got closer to beating me than anyone ever has and that’s the truth,” she says and Charlie can’t help but feel a little better at that. She imagined that this is what an older sister felt like and she vowed that if they didn’t go by the bar tonight, she would make Bass let her see her in the morning. She’d rather train with her in the morning anyways. 

They say their goodbyes and Charlie feels like she’s on cloud nine as she makes her way to Bass, who’s staring at her thoughtfully. He smiles at the smile on her face but keeps quiet until they get back into the wagon. Charlie lets him take them back to their camp, deciding to ask him about coming to the bar later and then they could probably walk there. When they get back to camp, they just sit in the wagon for a while and Bass watches her as she replays the fight and Jessie’s words in her mind.

“Well aren’t you a Ronda Rousey,” Bass finally says and Charlie looks at him. 

“Who?” she asks.

“She was this MMA fighter before the black out that also played in some pretty big action movies. She kicked major ass,” and to Bass’s surprise Charlie smiles at the reference. She usually got annoyed when he made a reference to before the black out.

“Well thanks Bass,” she says.

“So what were you and that chick talking about?”

Charlie raises an eyebrow at the term chick. “Her name’s Jessie, and actually she offered me a job.”

“What?” Bass says, his smile dropping.

“She said whenever I wanted to she could get me a room and I could be a regular fighter there,” Charlie explains.

“But what about,” and Charlie rolls her eyes and interrupts him.

“Relax Monroe, I’m not going to take her up on it… Maybe someday,” she says, a wistful tone in her voice.  
Bass studies her, “You really like her huh?” 

And Charlie smiles and looks at Bass. She nods, “Yeah I do, she’s cool. I imagine she’d be what an older sister would be like,” and Bass cringes just a little bit at that, thinking about how it’s his fault she lost a brother, but Charlie doesn’t even notice it. “She invited us to go to the bar tonight,” she says carefully, “she said she’d pay for our drinks.. And she said that if we were still here tomorrow I should come by and she’d teach me some kicks.”

Bass frowns, “I could teach you some kicks,” he says and Charlie sighs, letting her head fall back against the seat. 

Bass grinds his teeth, “Well I guess we could stay here tonight and leave tomorrow morning after you train with the chick,” and Charlie grins, letting the fact that he just called Jessie a chick again slide.

“You want to go the bar tonight, don’t you?” he says and she nods. He lets out a breath and says, “Well I guess we better just head back over there then, no point in setting up camp,” and Charlie smiles, one of her rare genuine smiles that not only takes up half her face and shows all her teeth but reaches her eyes making them sparkle and Bass can’t look away from her for a long moment.

When they reach the bar, Charlie hops down before they even come to a complete stop and almost skips into the bar, leaving Monroe mumbling to himself as he ties the horses to the post again. He quickly scans his surroundings before walking into the bar, his eyes immediately looking for Charlie. He finds her at the bar laughing with Jessie and Bass feels a tugging in his chest at her happiness. He hasn’t seen her this happy since- well ever, and he’s just happy he’s around her to see it. He quickly scans the bars surroundings and notes the drunk men and women that he needs to avoid before making his way over to Charlie. 

He sits down next to her and orders a whiskey from the bartender immediately. Charlie turns to look at him and Monroe looks at her while she introduces him as Jimmy to Jessie, his eyes not straying from hers until Jessie offers him her hand. He looks at Jessie and smiles at her while she shakes it, his eyes drawn to her tattoos and he wonders how he missed them during the fight. 

Charlie, reading his mind says, “So did you get the tattoos before the blackout?”

Jessie turns her attention back to Charlie, and Bass is grateful that Jessie isn’t interested in him, giving him freedom to give all his attention to Charlie. 

“Some of them,” she says, and Charlie’s eyes furrow. 

“You can get tattoos now?” she asked and Monroe can’t help but smile at Charlie’s naivety, she so rarely let it show.  
Jessie looks at her amused and Bass likes that she doesn’t talk down to Charlie as she says, “Yeah you can, they just don’t use a tattoo gun like they did before, instead they use safety pins and india ink. It takes a lot longer and you can’t do near as much as before but it works,” she says and Charlie seems fascinated as she turns Jessie’s arm over this way and that looking at all her tattoos. 

Monroe downs his whiskey and asks for two more, one for him and one for Charlie.   
“You like tattoos?” Jessie says, and Charlie nods.   
“Well if you wanted to get one, I have a friend that could give you some, he’ll even tattoo you for free for knowing me,” she says and Bass eyes Jessie before his eyes settle on Charlie, feeling a bit unsettled from the look of longing on her face. 

“Maybe someday,” Charlie says wistfully and Jessie is about to say something about getting one today but leaves it alone from the dangerous look in Bass’s eyes.   
Bass downs his next whiskey and pushes Charlie’s towards her. She downs it without even looking at Bass. 

“Well what would you want to get, if you could get one?” Jessie asks and Charlie looks at Bass thinking. Bass gazes at her, watching her think, but hoping she’ll be careful to not say anything to blow their cover. 

Charlie looks back at Jessie, “Well I think I’d want to get something for my brother and my dad,” she says and Bass tenses.

Jessie’s eyes furrow, “Oh, where are they?” 

Charlie bites her lip before saying carefully, “They died a while back.”  
Monroe asks for two more whiskeys at that, and Charlie and Bass both down it as soon as it reaches their table. 

Jessie feels bad for this girl, who had so much life in her and yet was so tough she seemed like she’s seen her fair share of fights. She instinctively knows not to ask further about her family and can’t help but feel a little amused at how in synch her and ‘her friend’ were to each other. She didn’t even think Tracy realized it, which only amused her further. 

“So how did you learn to fight like that?” Jessie asks her and Charlie smiles.

“Well my uncle taught me most of it, but I’ve known how to hunt since I was twelve, I was the one who put the food on the table,” and Bass’s turns to look at Charlie, he didn’t know that. “But Jimmy here taught me a lot of how to fight too,” Charlie says and Bass grins. 

“What about you?” Charlie asks Jessie, “where’d you learn to kick like that?” 

And Jessie smiles. “Well I was a lot like you when I was your age. How old are you anyways 27-28?” she asks.

“22,” Charlie responds and both her and Bass can see the surprise on her face, especially when she looks back to Bass before she continues.

“My family had died and I was just roaming around the country until I stumbled here. And just like you a woman took an interest in me and I got a fight. She let me win and she trained me and I became the top female fighter around here. See unlike you, I stayed,” she says, giving a pointed look at Charlie. Charlie smiles a little wearily and Jessie changes the subject. 

“What about you Jimmy? Where’d you learn to fight?” Jessie asks.

Bass clears his throat, he wasn’t expecting to do any talking tonight, but as he sees the curious look on Charlie’s face he says, “I was in the Marines before the black out,” he says. 

“Really?” Jessie says, sounding impressed, “How long?”

“Ten years until the black out hit,” he says. He orders two more whiskeys from the bartender.

“Did you do any tours?” Jessie says. Bass looks at her, not wanting to talk to this stranger about himself, but as he sees Charlie, looking at him, expectation on her face, he says, “Yeah, a few.”

“Where’d you go?” and this time it’s Charlie that asks him. He looks at her and the hungry expression on her face and drinks his whiskey quick, handing hers to her.   
She quickly downs it, wanting him to continue and Bass smiles a little bit as he turns around in his seat, giving Charlie his full attention. 

“I went to Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan,” and he watches as the wheels turn in her head as she remembers the history before the black out and tries to picture the map in her head.

“What was that like?” Jessie asks, and he glances at her for just a split second before catching Charlie’s eyes again. 

“Well it was a lot like how the world is now. You know it was a third world country there before the black out, so people were living like they do now. Most of them didn’t have electricity or cell phones or cars. But it was the desert, have you ever been to the desert?” he asks Charlie and she shakes her head. “Well it’s just sand and dirt for miles, it could get up to 120 degrees. And it wasn’t near as pretty as the deserts here in America, have you ever seen the grand canyon?” he asks Charlie again and she shakes her head, frowning. He squeezes her hand, “You will,” he says reassuringly. “The grand canyon is beautiful, you’ll see colors you’ve never seen in nature before when the sun sets,” Charlie waits for him to continue but that’s all he says. She wants to question him more about it but Bass turns away from her, ordering two more whiskeys. He didn’t want to talk anymore about it, he couldn’t tell Charlie everything about it with Jessie here, not without bringing up Miles. 

Jessie begins to feel a little like a third wheel, but she doesn’t really mind. She finds Tracy and Jimmy fascinating. She sees one of her friend fighters entering the bar and excuses herself, telling Charlie she’ll be right back as she goes and says hello to her friend. Charlie watches her leave, frowning until Bass shoves his shoulder against her gently, handing some more whiskey to her. As she takes it, she feels Bass wrap his fingers around hers and she smirks up at him. “You trying to get me drunk Jimmy?” she asks, before downing the whiskey.

“Something like that,” he replies and Charlie feels trapped by his gaze like she sometimes does. That is until a man bumps into her back. Bass immediately stands, on edge, and Charlie puts a hand on his chest, until he sits down, settling him. She glances at the guy who bumped into her and as he begins to sit down says, “Sorry but my friend’s sitting there, she’ll be back in just a minute.”

The man turns towards her, a protest on his lips that dies in his throat when he looks at her, interest overlapping the irritation there. Bass grinds his teeth, noticing it, especially when the man leans towards Charlie. “Well, I’m sure there’s room for one more here,” the man says, his eyes roaming Charlie’s body. 

Charlie is surprised that anyone would show interest in her right now with all the bruises she had on her from the fight. “What’s your name gorgeous?” the man says to her and Bass rolls his eyes next to her. 

“Tracy,” Charlie says eyeing the man. He looked to be around her age and had a nice body, but he just wasn’t her type and she has to force herself not to punch the man as he leans close to her whispering something that he thinks is sexy but is just degrading in her ear. 

“No thanks,” Charlie says and motions towards the bartender for two more drinks. 

“Well there’s no need to be so rude about it,” the man says angrily, standing up. Bass immediately stands up also, eyeing the man down. Charlie smiles slightly, not even bothering to look at either one of the two men, knowing that she could sit here and Bass could take him without her having to move a muscle.   
She downs her drink and hands the other drink to Bass, who takes it and downs it without looking away from the other man. She motions to the bartender for two more and feels as the man finally walks away, intimidated by Bass. She sighs a little bit in relief as Bass sits back down next to her. They both down their drink at the same time, and Charlie immediately hits tipsy, passes tipsy, and starts to feel a little drunk.   
Jessie comes back to the table, chuckling and Charlie looks at her. 

“Way to handle that Jimmy,” Jessie says, smirking a little bit. Bass grins at her, liking her more and more, as he orders two more drinks. 

“So where are you staying tonight?” Jessie asks and Bass answers for her, “Well we were going to set up camp about a mile away from here.”

“Why do you ask?” Charlie says. 

“Well, I was wondering if ya’ll would rather sleep in a bed. I could only get ya one room.. With one bed..” she says, smirking at Charlie and Charlie rolls her eyes, not caring if Bass sees it, which he does. 

“That sounds fantastic actually,” Bass says, smiling at Jessie who smiles right back at him.  
Charlie is about to protest, but Jessie says, “Alright, I’ll just go fix that up for ya’ll then,” before she can say anything and leaves. 

Charlie bites her lip, not sure how she feels about sharing a bed with Bass. Bass sees her discomfort and whispers in her ear, “What’s the matter Charlie?”   
And she looks at him, sees the gleam in his eyes and rolls her eyes, not bothering answering him. She asks for two more whiskeys. She downs the first one while Bass stares at her but as he reaches for the other one Charlie takes it and downs it too. She puts her hand over her stomach and freezes for a moment, feeling a little sick, before it settles and Bass chuckles at her. 

“You’re not a Matheson if you can’t hold your liquor Charlotte,” he whispers in her ear and she glares at him before sticking her tongue out at him childishly and he laughs at that. A full blown guffaw and Charlie can’t help but laugh with him.   
Bass orders two more whiskeys and they both down it before standing up, following Jessie to their room.   
Jessie unlocks a door and Bass immediately walks into the room, taking the key. Charlie faces Jessie to say goodnight. She is surprised when Jessie hands her some clothes. Charlie’s eyes furrow as she unfolds them before her eyebrows raise, staring at Jessie. Jessie laughs at Charlie’s expression. 

“They’re called pajamas, Tracy,” and Charlie opens her mouth to say that these ‘pajamas’ looked more like underwear but Jessie interrupts her, “You’re welcome. And you can keep them,” she says smiling like she just gave her the best present ever, “I’ll see you in the morning, I hope you’re not too hung over,” and Charlie groans, she wasn’t considering that when she was letting Bass keep giving her whiskey.   
She walks into the room and shuts the door before turning around. She had to admit, the room was nice. There was what looked like to be a queen size bed with two little nightstands beside it with candles and matches on them. There was a little desk and a chair in the corner and even a dresser against the wall. She also notices that there must be a closet since she doesn’t see Bass anywhere.  
She walks around the bed and sees a door and assumes that Bass is in there. She puts the clothes that Jessie gave her on the desk, 99% sure that she was not going to wear them, especially not in the same vicinity as Monroe. She shrugs out of her jacket, wincing a little bit from her bruises. She was gonna be sore tomorrow. She bends over to take off her boots and has to catch herself on the back of the chair, her body wanting to tip all the way over from the alcohol. She quickly slumps down into the chair and leans down carefully to take off her boots. She hears Monroe walk back into the room but doesn’t bother looking up until her feet are free. She leans back and is in the middle of swinging her foot into her lap to massage it a little bit when she sees Monroe and she freezes, her leg hanging mid air for a minute, before she slowly lets it drop. She gawks at Monroe, wondering if she was drunk enough to be hallucinating as he stands there with his back to her, only in his boxers, folding his clothes and putting them on the dresser. She can’t help but take in his muscular calves and lean legs, noticing the dent in the small of his back. She goes all the way up to his shoulders before he turns around, but instead of looking up at his face she swallows, taking in his bare chest and abs. 

She notices he just had a little bit of dirty blond hair on his chest, before her eyes trail down to his happy trail, the hair darkening just a little bit on the way down.   
“See anything you like Charlotte?”   
Charlie’s eyes snap to Monroe’s and she feels herself blush as she says, “No,” quickly, her voice higher pitched than normal. She clears her throat and does her best to glare at Monroe. “What are you doing with no clothes on?” she asks.

“I’m not naked, Charlotte, I have boxers on,” Monroe says and Charlie rolls her eyes, “I usually sleep naked in a bed,” and Charlie’s eyes widen a little bit as she looks back into his eyes.

“You are not sleeping naked,” she says and Monroe chuckles. 

“Can you at least put your pants on?” Charlie asks, and he rolls his eyes.

“There’s no way I’m sleeping with jeans on in a bed. Especially when I haven’t slept in a bed in months,” he says and Charlie huffs.

“Fine,” she says, not looking at Monroe, and gathers the clothes that Jessie gave to her and taking them into the closet. She shuts the door loudly and yanks her clothes off, ignoring the pain. If Monroe was going to be comfortable then she would too damn it. She pulls on the purple shorts, if you could call them that. They would probably be better defined as panties but Charlie ignores that thought. She starts to pull the matching top on over her bra before she notices that the top had a bra built inside it.   
She bites her lip, contemplating, before rolling her eyes and taking her bra off. No point in wearing two bras. The top doesn’t even come down to where her tank tops usually do, just below her belly button and Charlie yanks it down but quickly pulls it back up as her boobs half way pop out. She feels her whole body blush and she wonders if maybe she should just put her clothes back on. But then the closet starts spinning and she says fuck it under her breath, not even bothering to pick up her clothes as she opens the closet door.

She turns around to shut it to give her a moment to catch her bearings before turning around to Monroe. Monroe, who was sitting on the bed and fiddling with what looked to be some type of ointment container freezes and it’s his turn to gawk. Charlie watches his adams apple bob as his eyes trail from her neck down to her feet and back up again, pausing at her chest and her pantie/shorts. 

“See anything you like Monroe?” Charlie asks tauntingly, using his words against him. But his eyes don’t shoot back up to hers like hers did to his, but lazily move over her body one more time before finally looking into her eyes. Charlie feels warm and a little flustered from his gaze and decides that she will fold her clothes. She turns around and opens the closet and quickly bends over to pick up her clothes. When she straightens up she gets hit with vertigo bad and has to pause for a moment until her vision clears. She does her best to pretend that he’s not staring at her as she folds her clothes and puts them back on the desk. 

She feels nervous with nothing left to do and wonders if maybe she wasn’t drunk enough for this when Monroe calls her name. She looks over at him and he pats the bed beside him. She raises an eyebrow. He raises the ointment, “Come here, let me patch you up,” he says and Charlie considers telling him to shove that ointment up his ass but thinks that maybe he didn’t deserve that yet and finally walks over to him and sits on the bed carefully. 

She sits Indian style in front of him and gives him her hand when he reaches for it. She hisses a little bit at the coldness of it when he layers it on her palm. He pauses, looking at her, “you okay?” he asks and she nods. 

“It’s cold,” she says, waiting for him to make a retort about her being a baby, but it doesn’t come. 

“You did really well tonight,” Monroe says as he cakes her bruised knuckles with the ointment. Charlie feels a tingle of surprise before another feeling covers it, a pleased sense of pride which surprises Charlie more than the feeling of surprise did. And she realizes that she cares about Monroe’s opinion of her, and while she thinks that should be a bad thing, she can’t make herself care. “Thanks Bass,” she whispers, looking at him shyly. Monroe’s hand stops moving over hers and he looks up at her, his gut tightening from the shy way she was looking at him.

Charlie has to mentally command herself to stay still, like she would at a doctors when he grabs her face, turning it from side to side. He layers it on her jaw and she hisses again, her hands unconsciously going to his bare chest. He pauses, raising an eyebrow at her pained expression. “It stings,” Charlie says and Monroe leaves it alone. As Monroe starts putting the ointment on her shoulder, her hands clench around his chest and Monroe freezes. Charlie blushes and makes her hands drop, grabbing the blanket underneath them. 

When his hands go to her ribs Charlie can’t help but grab his hands, fidgeting under his fingers. He sighs and Charlie fails at trying to stop a grin forming on her face. He stares up at her, his eyebrows furrowing, before he puts the ointment on her bruised ribs and Charlie bites her lip as a giggle escapes her.

Monroe smiles at her, “I can’t believe it, a Matheson ticklish,” he says and runs his hands lightly over her sides making Charlie laugh. He chuckles but drops his hands. Charlie nearly squeaks as he grabs her ankle, and she reaches back quickly to catch her balance as he uncurls her leg onto his lap. Charlie bites her tongue from saying she didn’t think there would be anything to patch up there and lets him uncurl her other leg. Her eyelids droop a little as his hands slide up her legs and grip her hips. “Okay, I think you’re good,” he whispers leaning over her, his hands grazing her ribs, tickling her one last time, his eyes soft and hot simultaneously, like a controlled fire crackling in a fire place on a snowy night. Charlie has a sudden urge to pull him down on top of her and her eyes widen as she shakes her head once, it had to be the alcohol talking. She backs away from him until she’s at the top of the bed and pulls the covers up so she can slip underneath them. 

She doesn’t bother saying anything to Bass and blows out the candle on her nightstand before flipping onto her stomach, moaning into the sheets. Bass chuckles as she mutters, “Definitely worth it,” into her pillow before slipping into the sheets on his side. He blows out the candle on his side and lays back as the room is encased in darkness except for a little moonlight through the thin curtain in the window. He looks over at Charlie, noticing the way the moonlight caressed her face, creating an ethereal glow around her head and something inside him aches. He swallows and also flips onto his stomach, and can’t help but groan a little too. Charlie chuckles at him, without opening her eyes and Bass looks over at her again. 

He has an almost irresistible urge to wrap his arms around her and pull her to him, but he shoves his arms underneath his pillow and gazes at her one last time before closing his eyes. 

Bass wakes up from the sunlight blaring through the curtain and hair in his mouth. His head is pounding and his mouth is dry but Bass mostly forgets about it as he feels the position that he’s in. The position that he’s in with Charlie. He knows he should feel a little guilty that he’s not only on her side of the bed but taking up half of it as Charlie’s almost at the edge of it. She’s facing away from him, and Bass has got his arm wrapped around Charlie’s stomach, his fingers underneath the bra of her shirt. His fingers twitch as he feels the warm softness of the underside of her breasts. He has to concentrate to force himself not to grope her. His other arm is underneath Charlie’s neck acting as a pillow for her and Bass tries to wiggle it a little bit and feels tingling shoot through it and knows that it has gone numb, but he doesn’t mind. He would gladly let his whole body go numb if Charlie would sleep on top of him every night. 

He feels her whole back flush against his chest. And one leg is in between her legs and the other is on top of them. He feels her butt flush against his morning wood and he can’t help but thrust slightly against her at the feeling. He swallows as his eyes roll just a little bit to the back of his head, and he has to bite his tongue to keep from groaning. He has to think about baseball to keep from dry humping her and lays his face against the back of her head, smelling her hair. God, he was a goner for this girl, he thinks as his dick twitches from her scent. What he wouldn’t give right now to just pull those booty shorts aside and thrust balls deep into her warm pussy, his hand on the soft flat skin of her stomach holding her to him, his other hand pushing her head towards him so he can breathe in her gasp as he makes their bodies one for the first time. His dick throbs from the thought and he does groan then. 

He freezes as he feels Charlie twitch and then stretch her arms out over her head. He loosens his arms around her as her back arches and her head presses against his neck. He watches as she groans, her face wincing and she cups her hand around her head. “You’re head pounding?” he asks her softly, his voice low and gravely from sleep, his throat sandpapery from the whiskey. She nods before freezing in his arms, her eyes popping open. Bass knows that that is probably his cue to release her, but his body won’t listen to his reasoning. She lowers her head, looking at his arm around her stomach and she accidently backs further into him as she feels him curled around her. He growls backing his hips away from her a little bit and she jumps. She starts to roll away and nearly falls off the bed if Bass didn’t tighten his arms around her. He sighs and regretfully releases her, wincing as he pulls his numb arm from underneath her neck. Charlie sits up quickly, her hands going to cup her forehead as her head pounds and white speckles obscure her vision.   
Bass rolls out of bed and grabs the water bottle from the desk, taking a quick gulp out of it before going to kneel in front of Charlie. She takes the water bottle from him without looking up and drinks half of it. She clears her throat and looks up at Bass, her eyes squinting at the sunlight. The sun makes them the lightest blue Bass has ever seen, making her eyes nearly transparent looking. “Thanks,” she says, her voice low and hoarse as she hands him back the water bottle. He drinks the rest of it and stands up to go dig in his pack. He pulls out an old bottle of aspirin and another water bottle and goes back to kneel in front of Charlie.  
He pulls out two aspirins and hands one to Charlie who pops it in her mouth without question. He hands her the water bottle and again she drinks half of it before handing it back to Bass. He takes the other aspirin and drinks the rest of it. He watches as her hands go back to cup her head and he scoots closer to her, pulling her hands away so he can massage her temples. She moans, letting him, not even thinking about whether she should or not. 

“I’m never drinking again,” she mumbles and Bass chuckles.

“If I had a diamond for every time I said that,” he says, but doesn’t finish his sentence. 

Charlie looks up at him and pulls his hands away from her head, letting them fall with hers into her lap. Her eyes widen and she shuts her eyes groaning.

“What?” Bass asks.

“I’m supposed to be training with Jessie soon,” Charlie says and Bass laughs.

“You seemed more excited about it last night,” he says teasingly and Charlie glares at him.

“It’s your fault I’m this hung over, Bass,” she says and he just shrugs smiling at her. 

She stares at him, “How are you not hung over?” she asks, “You drank just as much as me.”

“I am hung over Charlie,” he answers her, “I’ve just had more practice with dealing with it then you have.”

Charlie rolls her eyes before smirking, “How? Because you’re old?” 

Bass’s mouth hangs open a little bit at that and the look he gives her is in between a glare and one of disbelief and Charlie laughs. 

Bass’s eyes flash and he pushes her down into the bed, climbing over her.

“That wasn’t a very nice thing to say Charlotte,” he growls.

“But it’s true!” Charlie says still laughing, but sobers up a little in surprise at the disappointed look on his face.

She feels a pang of regret as she watches his happy mood plummet in just the change of his expression. “I was just kidding Bass,” she says as Bass climbs out of the bed. “I don’t really think you’re old, you know,” she continues since he doesn’t respond. He freezes for a moment before grabbing his clothes and says “You’re right Charlotte I am a lot older than you,” before going into the closet. And Charlie knows that he didn’t believe her. 

She rolls her eyes and groans, letting herself fall back into the bed for a moment. Great, she thinks, now he’s going to be in a bad mood for hours. She sighs, not understanding why that would bother him, it was just a fact that he was older than her. She didn’t even really think about their age difference except when she got a chance to rib him about it, and she wonders why bothering him isn’t as fun as it used to be before getting up and collecting her clothes. 

He doesn’t even look at her when he comes out and Charlie refrains from rolling her eyes at him as she passes him to put her clothes on in the closet. They pack quickly and head to the bar, Bass walking in front of her instead of beside her like he usually does. They sit in their usual spot and when Bass doesn’t order anything she orders for him, getting oatmeal for both of them. They eat quickly and Charlie pays for it before Bass is able to. 

Charlie heads to the corral to meet up with Jessie, not looking back but feeling Bass trailing behind her. 

When they reach the corral Jessie walks up quickly to Charlie and Charlie smiles at her as she gives her a hug. “Good morning Jimmy,” she says to Bass who nods without making eye contact with her. Jessie raises an eyebrow, looking at Charlie and Charlie rolls her eyes, shaking her head slightly.

They get into the corral and Jessie says they should start with some stretching. As they’re both sitting down stretching their legs, Jessie leans over to mutter to Charlie, “What’s wrong with Jimmy?”

Charlie looks over at Bass, who’s sharpening his knifes with more gusto than necessary, a pissed off frown on his face. “He’s mad at me because I called him old,” she says.

Jessie laughs loudly at that and Charlie looks over at her. She shakes her head at Jessie’s mirth, “I was just kidding,” she says, “I don’t know why he’s got a stick up his ass about it,” and Jessie laughs louder. Charlie can’t help but chuckle a little and they switch legs as Jessie sobers up. 

Jessie rolls her eyes at Charlie before eyeing Bass. 

“What?” Charlie asks, a little offended by the eye roll. 

Jessie turned to look at Charlie and sighed. “I don’t know how many times I gotta tell you Tracy, that man wants you bad, hell he might even be in love with you, you’d have to be blind not to see it, or whatever the hell you are. So you calling him old while he might seem mad about it, he’s probably just pouting because he thinks his chances with you have lessened.” 

Charlie almost sputters Bass’s name at that but catches it and covers it with a cough. “Jimmy in love with me?” Charlie laughs, though uncomfortably, “You’re crazy. He knows I’m with Jason,” she shakes her head, “And even if I wasn’t with Jason, there’s no way.. If you only knew what kinda history we and our families have, you’d understand how utterly insane that is. He still thinks I’m a child half the time.”

But Jessie shakes her head disbelievingly, “Whatever you have to tell yourself Charlie, but tell me this at least, this Jason you’re with, he’s in love with you?”

“Yes he loves me!” Charlie says, a little too loudly, causing Bass to look over at Charlie. Charlie swivels her head towards him at the motion and immediately swivels it back to look at Jessie when they make eye contact, her cheeks flaming. 

“And are you in love with him?”

Charlie opens her mouth to say yes again but finds herself hesitating, a weight that felt a lot like dread filling her stomach. 

“I- I think I am,” Charlie says, her voice softer and her eyes dropping from Jessie’s. She shoves at some rocks with her foot before bringing her legs into a butterfly stretch. After a moment of silence she finally looks back up at Jessie. Jessie looks at her with knowing yet somewhat pitying eyes. 

“Tracy, if you have to think about it, then you’re not in love with him. You might love him, but you’re not in love with him.”

Charlie’s eyes furrow in confusion. “What do you mean?” she asks.

Jessie moves her gaze to Bass, biting her lip in thought. She looks back to Charlie, fire in her eyes. “When you’re in love with someone, Tracy, it affects your whole body. It affects your appetite, your sleep. Sometimes girls will lose ten to twenty pounds in the first few months, and that’s before black out Tracy. You can’t sleep, sleep just doesn’t do for you what it used to, you’re too excited to sleep, to wound up, thinking about him. When you’re in love, it’s one of the rare times in life when you are truly alive, everything is heightened. When you’re around him, you always want to touch him, to be touched by him, subconsciously or consciously. When you’re not with him, you feel like you’re going crazy counting every minute until you’re with him again. You- You’re,” Jessie lets out a breath shaking her head before chuckling slightly, “I don’t know a better way to describe it except that you’re almost one person, you and him. You’re in synch, your movements start to look the same, you gravitate around each other, and you might not realize it but you and Jimmy already do that.”

“Do what?” Charlie asks, completely enraptured and in thought of everything she’s saying. 

“Move like each other, gravitate around each other. You should’ve seen what it’s like to watch you two in the bar last night. You move, he moves. He shifts, you accommodate his shifting. You took drinks from him without even looking, not to mention he only had eyes for you, even when answering my questions, he still looked at you,” Jessie pauses for a moment, laughing, “And when that guy went up next to you, hitting on you, Jimmy wasn’t even really jealous,” and Charlie raises an eyebrow at that. “No that’s what made it even more interesting,” Jessie starts to explain, seeing the disbelieving look on Charlie’s face. “He wasn’t jealous because he knew you weren’t interested, he knows you. Which is amazing, it usually takes years for couples to have that level of understanding and trust. And the way you just sat there and let him handle it without even asking him or even looking at him.” Jessie lets out a breath shaking her head, “If that’s what it’s like when you’re not in love with him, I’d really like to see you together when you are, and its coming Tracy, whether you want it to or not, it’s already happening.”

Charlie has no idea what to say to that. Her head is spinning. There’s no way that that was possible, Charlie thought, right? It was just too insane. But she feels doubt forming as she thinks about how Bass always touches her unnecessarily, brushing against her, she closes her eyes as she thinks about how his arms lingered when he was helping her dress, about how even when they were fighting she still felt like his eyes were gentle, caressing her, hell he wouldn’t even really fight her but would wrap his arms around her, trying to get her to tap out. She thinks about how he’s had such a problem with Jason, about how his hands shook after she was almost raped, he was more afraid than she was. She remembers the way her body warmed up all over as she saw Bass last night, with nothing but his boxers on. She thought that it was just the alcohol affecting her but… She shakes her head, feeling so confused, it felt like her whole world was flipping upside down.

She suddenly felt anxious, on edge, wound up. And she took it out on Jessie during her training. Jessie didn’t seem to mind, actually encouraged it. By the time Charlie was done she was dripping sweat, her body sore, bruises and cuts forming over her other ones.

Jessie offered to let her take a bath in her room which had a tub. She said she could get the maid to fill it up with hot water and Charlie accepted graciously, feeling her body tensing up. She knew that soon she would be so sore it would be difficult to walk, and found that she regretted training with Jessie. Not just because of the physical consequences but because of everything she told her. She couldn’t even force herself to look at Bass as she walked by him. She paused in front of him, and told him she was going to take a bath and that she would be ready to leave when she was through. She started to go find Jessie’s room when Bass grabbed her hand and despite Charlie’s soreness she nearly jumped three feet away from him as if he burned her. She forced her burning legs to move and she quickly walked away before he could talk to her.   
While she bathed she thought hard about Jessie’s words and knew in her gut that they were true, no matter if she wanted them to be or not. She always had a connection with Bass, an intensity between them, even when they were trying to kill each other. Sometimes when he looked at her she felt frozen in time and yet like she was burning from the inside out at the same time. She shook her head and thought about Jason, her face twisting in guilt and pain. She couldn’t stop the tears and began to cry as she thought about how this would hurt Jason if he found out. Her mother and Miles reaction crossed her mind and she couldn’t help the sob that choked its way out of her throat. She let herself succumb to her emotions before she took a deep breath and dipped her head underwater. She stayed under for as long as possible, the sensations of nothing but water around her calming her. When she felt like her lungs would burst she came up for air, gasping. 

She took deep breaths until her breathing got back to normal and scrubbed her face, hoping that Bass or Jessie wouldn’t be able to tell that she was crying. She didn’t know what she was going to do. But the thought of hurting Jason, especially during these circumstances wrenched at her gut. She didn’t think she could break up with him, especially not tell him that she thought Bass was in love with her and that she could have serious feelings for him too. So she decided that for now she would try and pretend that her sudden revelation didn’t happen.

She tries to distance herself from Bass for the rest of the trip. But it ends up not even lasting the day. 

Bass can tell there was something wrong with her. He hoped that she would tell him about it when she was ready but since she went all day avoiding eye contact with him he started dreading that it had something to do with him. 

So he started out asking her gently what was wrong. 

She only shook her head. 

Then he asked her strongly and she ignored him.

Finally he said something mean that sounded like something he would’ve said as General Monroe to get a reaction out of her.

However it wasn’t the reaction he was expecting. 

Instead of blowing up at him she leveled him with a weary stare that was somehow worse than her eat shit and die glare. 

She was afraid for some reason that had to do with him. 

He stared right back trying to read her mind like he was sometimes able to do when their gazes were locked but it only confused him more. 

“Bass, are you in love with me?” she finally asked.

Monroe’s eyes widened before he forced them to return to normal. His mouth felt dry all of a sudden.   
Charlie studied Monroe as he controlled his reaction but she noticed the way his fingers twitched. 

“Why would you ask me that?” he finally responded, his voice low and rough like he hadn’t used it in days. 

She stared at him, wondering if she answer that or not and how to answer it. 

It wasn’t the curiosity on his face that made her decide to answer but the challenge in his eyes. 

Leave it to Monroe to make discussing their relationship a challenge. She didn’t understand it but she never backed down from a challenge. Monroe knew this, he wanted her to think about why she thought that.   
“Something Jessie said started to make me wonder if you wanted me more than just as a friend,” she said carefully, yes she accepted the challenge, but that didn’t mean she had to jump in head first either. 

Monroe blinked, “What did Jessie say?” he asked.

She hesitates for just a second before saying, “She said that you don’t look at me like a friend would.”

Monroe cocks an eyebrow, making Charlie feel like he was making fun of her as he says, “Is that all she said?” in an almost mocking tone. 

Charlie’s eyebrows furrow as she squints at Monroe momentarily, assessing him. It only took her a second to figure that behind his joking bravado Monroe was nervous, thus the twitching fingers. She very rarely saw Bass nervous and the fact that she was causing it made her gain more confidence. 

“She said that you gravitate around me, that you’re in synch with my movements-”

“We’re partners,” Monroe interrupts her, “We’re supposed to be in synch or else we’re not very good partners,” he says, “And I have to gravitate around you because you can’t keep up with me.”

Charlie rolls her eyes before continuing, “In the bar she said that you only had eyes for me,” she says, trying not to laugh as she says them, “And strangers think that we’re together even with our age difference.”

Charlie watches Monroe’s face pull back a little at that. She watches as he blinks a few times as his jaw works. 

“There she goes again calling me old,” Monroe mutters to himself but Charlie hears it. 

“I’m not saying your old Monroe,” she says, “I’m just saying that wouldn’t it be more reasonable for people to think that you’re my-my-,” she struggles as her brain jumps over father and brother, and Monroe grimaces, “uncle or something?” she continues, “But they immediately jump to the conclusion that we’re lovers,” she finishes, crossing her arms over her chest, “Now why do you think that is Bass?”

“It sounds like you want me to be in love with you,” he says.

Charlie shakes her head, getting frustrated. “Enough with these games Monroe, I want you to tell me the truth, because we’re partners and because no matter what you’ve done, you’ve always been the one person I can count on to never lie to me,” she says. 

Monroe’s Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows. 

“I don’t think you’re ready to hear the answer to that,” he says quietly, looking away from her.

Charlie moans, “You know for someone’s who so touchy about his age, you sure do act like a child sometimes,” she says, throwing her arms up in defeat. She shakes her head, letting out a breath as she turns to walk away from him.


End file.
